CBS Press~The race begins in Seattle, Wash. when Teams begin jockeying for available flights to the first destination, Beijing, China. Once there, Teams are faced with their first Roadblock, which requires them to feast on a Chinese delicacy. As the racers continue to navigate their way through the busy streets of Beijing, they are faced with the game's first twist. Meanwhile, the racer's physical prowess is put to the test when they must climb a portion of the Great Wall of China.

Seattle Washington ( Memorial Day Weekend May 27th )Pedaler brings us this spoiler didn't quite make it :

Seattle airport earlier this week, and saw all of the teams at the Seattle Tacoma airport. My pilot buddy didn't see exactly where the teams were going, but there were apparently only two International flights from gates the teams were congregating around: Hawaii and Tokyo. "My pilot buddy who saw the teams at SeaTac said he was in the South Satellite. He said there was an Aeroflot flight out of there around the same time as the NWA Int'l flights on either May 30 or 31."

krw2006 TAR10 spotted at SEATAC May 27 - headed to BeijingI rode on United's flight between Seattle and Tokyo with many of TAR10 teams Saturday May 27. The airport boarding area was 'buzzing' with couples dressed alike who were followed by camera crews. Each couple wore matching numbered tags on their backpacks and were dressed alike. The pair next to me (Team #1) pointed out the window at another plane, not yet departing, and kept asking the flight crew about our on-time departure and arrival status. They also inquired about Chinese currency exchange rates for their next destination in Beijing.I recognize the two blonds in Blogger K The Kuwaiti's pictures but no sight of Team #1.

jennblevin@Twop's I decided to actually take my lunch for once and spent fifteen minutes talking to an exceedingly helpful woman at the Seattle Film & Music office -- she'd even been at the starting line!

The starting line is: Kite Hill at Gas Works Park in Seattle! (So much for my guess of Snoqualmie Falls.) Here's an aerial map of the park. Kite Hill is the roughly circular thing in the upper left-hand corner of the map. What she said: Phil and the teams were at the top of Kite Hill; the luggage was roughly where the "trail" in "Burke Gilman Trail" is located on the map, and the cars (black Mercedes) were lined up in the parking lot close to where the red blip on the trail is. There were 13 cars and 12 (!) teams. They set it up with a fireboat shooting jets of water out on Lake Union (off to the left side of the linked map), and floatplanes taking off and landing.There were about 75 crew people and 40 crew vehicles.It was quite rainy, though on and off, while they were filming. She expected somebody to slip while running down Kite Hill to get to their luggage, and in fact some of the crew did, but no contestants did.After leaving the park, the teams had to find their own way to Sea-Tac, though they blocked off a number of streets and funneled them up Northlake Way to Stone Way, and they might have asked at businesses how to get to the airport.

Tip I was sent a tip that someone with a platinum card or membership ? not sure how that works ? had tried to book a room at one of the Hyatt Hotels on Memorial Day weekend in Seattle , Washington but was told that it was booked for a special group .

Just a few early guesses from the TV guide pics in order of chronology:

1. VIPUL/ARTIThe TV Guide pic of Vipul/Arti makes me think they're opening their first clue to take them to Beijing. It's a Route Info envelope, they are still in their cold-weather clothes (which look like their starting clothes: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race10/vipul_arti.shtml although she has changed her pants), and their hair is wet -- from the rain or coming in on the boats.

3. PETER/SARAHMaybe their first clue takes them to the Forbidden City? Sarah has just gotten an envelope and is tearing it open. Wondering why a) the guard is giving them directions even though they haven't opened the envelope yet & don't know what they're doing next and b) what that red card is in the guard's hand. Maybe they had to give it to the guard to get their next clue?

4. GREAT WALLA roadblock at the Great Wall -- looks to me like Godwin, Tom, and Mary choose to do the wall. The teams have also changed clothes by now, obviously, from the start of the race so this is day 2 of the leg -- day 1 is almost entirely consumed with the flight.

While I can't say exactly where the Forbidden City photo of Peter/Sarah was taken, it probably helps that we can eliminate one of the four gates that lead into the palace (there's one for each cardinal point).

The East Opulent Gate (东华门) is slightly different from the rest, as due to superstition and geomancy and stuff, only eight columns of doornails were installed on each side. Now if Peter and Sarah (the usual nine columns on their door) aren't at the East Gate, and their shadows point straight into the Forbidden City, it means that the photo wasn't taken in the morning. Consequently, we can deduce that there isn't Hours of Operation bunching at the Forbidden City, and depending on the arrival times of their flights, we would know about how far into the leg the location is.

Instinct tells me that it's the South Gate (Meridian Gate), since Beijing is after all high in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the total lack of other tourists confuses me quite a bit. Any ideas?

Since the Great Wall is indeed on the way to Mongolia (and they drive there), could this be one long leg instead of two separate ones? And there typically (well, actually, always) isn't a Roadblock on the first leg, what could this mean for the scaling of the wall?

Also, I have something for Vipul and Arti in that photo... They look good...

« Last Edit: August 26, 2006, 09:31:59 AM by Neobie »

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Found out that Neobie in Chinese means "f*king awesome"! No, really. Look it up!

Edited to add: FWIW, Team Handicap appears to be leaving the FC, as the picture of an unidentified gate below shows the gate opens inward, so they must have finished their task (or went to the wrong gate).

Being above the Tropic of Cancer, shadows in Beijing should point northwards no matter the time of the day or year. If they are leaving the Forbidden City, would that mean that they are at one of the gates running down the axis of the compound? Assuming so, we can eliminate the West Gate (Xihua Men, 西华门) along with the East Gate (Donghua Men, 东华门) which we eliminated earlier because of the number of studs on the door.

Neobie. Must have looked at over a hundred pictures of doors at the Forbidden City. Not sure about the North Gate, as the shadows are all wrong (as you said, they should be pointing north). I suspect it's an internal doorway. One thing going for us is the stone (flush) threshhold. We can eliminate all doors with a raised (wooden) threshhold. I'm also starting to think that Beijing is only a clue stop, on the way to Mongolia in the first episode. We'll have to wait and see.

Edited to add: If you think picture of Forbidden City are scarce, try googling for "costumed guards". :-\ I suspect he was hired by TPTB to add some atmosphere to the China leg.

Funny you should say he is dressed like a Mongol. At first I thought (based on the costume) that this may be at some temple/fortress in Mongolia (since that is a known pitstop). But no, couldn't be, given TPTB said they go to Beijing. Looks like the Great Wall kept the Mongols out for centuries, but Van Munster was able to smuggle one into the Forbidden City anyway. Maybe they are just trying to confuse us spoilers.

listen I have the picture in my hand and the Barbarian looking dude is holding a red booklet or paper or something ..maybe hes part of a tour or just hands out flyers and is just helping out Sarah & Tom? or maybe i just need some sleep

Only thing is, Sarah hasn't yet opened what appears to be a clue envelope yet, so why is the Khan "look-a-like" pointing? Assuming they have just finished a task (or just arrived at a task), then shouldn't they read the clue before they ask for directions? :-\

Edited to add: Wow, Neobie knows his dynasty! If it's the Yuan Dynasty, then this battle armor kinda matches.

In other news, kill me now. I found forty-two gates within the Forbidden City, with the possibility of more! However, this door, unlike most, doesn't open flat against the inner wall, instead being movable outwards up to 180°. Now we just need to eliminate those one by one...

Edited to add: How about the Mongol (hey I'm not 100% sure on this) pointing north... into Mongolia?

« Last Edit: August 24, 2006, 07:08:01 AM by Neobie »

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Found out that Neobie in Chinese means "f*king awesome"! No, really. Look it up!

listen I have the picture in my hand and the Barbarian looking dude is holding a red booklet or paper or something ..maybe hes part of a tour or just hands out flyers and is just helping out Sarah & Tom? or maybe i just need some sleep

I am a chinese, i just think, this is a card or something, like directional purposes.

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Singaporean here - PM me, if you need me to translate, Chinese, Malay, English, German or Japanese

This shot was taken between 6:38 and 7:09 am (assumes May 29th, 2006).

I re-calculated this after remembering that it would be the 29th, not the 28th due to the date line. That did not make a big change. I looked at the door again an reassessed its angle with respect to the wall (looks less than 45 now that I stare at it). I'm getting a solar altitude between 18 and 24 deg. Check out the location Peter's calf muslcle's shadow! It's a low sun. At first that left open whether it was am or pm. But Neobies comment about the number of doornails nails this down as being just inside the West door of the Forbidden City.